Method and means of receiving signals



R. H. RANGER METHOD AND MEANS OF RECEIVING SIGNALS Filed Nov. 12, 1921 2 sheets-sheet 1 Fig.1

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, R. H. RANGER METHOD AND MEANS OF RECEIVING SIGNALS Filed Nov. 12,1921 2 sheets-sheer? wvewtoz RANGER Patented Mar. 27,- liQZES.

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ApplicationfiledNovem'berJZ, 1921. serial no. 514,456.

To (ZZZ whomit may concern it known that I, 'RroH-Afm) How ANn RANGER, a citizen of the United States, re- .siding in the borough of Brooklyn, Kings County, lcity and State of New: York, have invented, certainnew and useful Improve ments in :Methods and Means of Receiving Signals, of which'the following is a'spec1-: 1 ffication accompanied by drawings.

.10 This invention relates to method sf and means ofreceiving signals and is more particularly'useful in connection with wireless telegraphy,though it is not limited thereto.

It is well. known that atmospheric disturbances commonly called static interferewith reception of radio telegrams as the;

currents generated in the receiving-systems by such disturbances blend with the signal currents and render the'message more or amplified by the usual radio amplifier-setc. r mm the amplifier set 4 the'current' passes less indistinct and quite frequently wholly unintelligible. There have been many attempts to overcome the effect of these disturbances and while some'of these have been more or less successful, nevertheless, there are times"whenstatic disturbances seriously alfect the reception of radiomessages.

My invention relates to the combination of several receivers all working on the same signal, but each receiver having some essentially different characteristic such as in re spect to directional properties, different location, damping, type of detector, type of receiver, etc.

The messages received through the several systems are either recorded separately, and

later placed adjacent to each other for the operator to interpret, or they are relayed to a central station; and simultaneously recorded on the same strip of paper.

40 When the messages from the plurality of systems have been recorded it'will be found in nearly all cases that the static obliterating a portion of a message received at one station is entirely absent in the message received at one .ormore of the others or else. is of such character or magnitude that this porvtion of the message can be distinctly read.

Further particulars in regardto the improvements will be obtained from the following descriptiomreference being had to the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is an illustration of three stations.

I for receiving the messages and relaying the same to a common point.-

' I Fig. 2 isv a representation of a portion of the message received at three stations.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of another antenna system for the improved method.

acteristics in respect to the signal. This has been diagrammatically indicated hy e x tending the'antcnnae 1, 2 and 3 in the direction of signal reception. These systems are carrying out.

alsopfeferably placed at unequal distances have different characteristics in respect to The signal received at station A may be from-the transmitting station and they may i through relay 7 which, through attraction of armature 8 causes periodic impulsesfrom battery 9 topass through means 10 for actuating the mirror 11: Beams of light from source 12 are therefore rcflectedon to sensitive strip 18 to trace the signel thereon.

The amplifiers and rectifiers4 and 5 may be of any type such as the well known threeelectrode tubes.

my invention the detailed construction is The general principle of the not given. photographic arrangement illustrated at 10, 11, 12 and 13 is alsoold and well known and it is therefore illustrated diagrammatically only. 7

Since the relay 7 will be energized throughout the entire portion of a dot or a dash even at radio frequency no heterodyne, or other continuous wave detecting system is necessary and therefore none has been shown. However, it will-be understood that the relay 7 could also be used-with the beats are rectified and further, amplified by' the audio amplifying set 16. From the set Since these per se are not 16 the current passes through coil .l7 which controls a delicate vibratory mir ror.;18 similar to the one'd'escribedinconnection with receivingsystem The mirror 18 will therefore oscillate :at the frequency of the" heterodyne beat 'quency..

which will be an audio .f1e

Thesignal coming. from receiving system B through the 'mirror arrangement 18 will appear on the developed film as indicated at B of Fig. 2..

r The signal coming'from the receivingsystem C will be-reco'rded afteramphfication and detection in the manner indicated [at G;

in Fig. 2.- Further-description of the' receiving system C will not be necessary as the operation will be understood from The photographic arrangement has" been graphic strip after it emerges frorn'theide Byreferring to igi' 2"it will be seen that static interference wasibeingreceived; station G throughout the greater portlonof the-message' Station B was substantially a the message while-station 'A tree of. ,"static, excepting two portions where false freceived from .station B free'from static except at the last portion of signals were given.

The operator in reading this strip will find complete accordbetween the messages B and A] until he gets to the point '24.

i Herefappareutly dot 25 was received from station A but the tracings of the message show a small amount of static or other interference 26 at this point. This makes it plain to the open- 'ator that this portion of the .message is not a dot but a space. Consequently, the dot Will bedisregarded. In general, station C received a considerable amount of static up to the point 24. The'signa l in the main cor-l roborates the signal from the other twostations but if it were beinginterpreted alone difiiculty would be had in receiving the messa e.

From point 24 to point 27 the message from station A is clear but apparently a long 'dash 28 was received at this point. At this time there was sorsuch. static at station C that this portion of the message C will not be of much assistance in interpreting the message but by referring to the message B it will be seen that the long dash 28 of message A. 'is really made up by a dash and a dot since station B was not troubled by static at this time. The operator will therefore read this portion of the messa e -from 'B. Throughout the remainder of t e mesthe descrip-- -tion of'the otherreceiving systems. 3

sage the signal is comparison of the three messages but ifithe operator, had one received from. the plural be read and "compare'd.-=1

record only th'e'interpretation might be uncertain. "Inthe foregoing way the message" Qy'of stations-can In allbutexceptlonafcases it will bepos sible by means of my invention to correctlyread messageswithout difficulty. It may.

happen .that'fstatici-will be received atithe same instantfand'of similar amplitude .and

characteristic I occasions -w1l,l"blerare.

tions of equalintensity atthe same] instant the three recordedmessages can be madeto sI-at all thestations but such '1 Even if static occurs at each of the sta- 1 differ from each other by tuning one or more of theantennae to the signal while making Y the other. aperiodic Furthermore, the same result may be accomplished by operating one of the 'heterodynesat, say, 1000 frequency above the signal and the other'heterodyne at a'if'requency' below the signal, the heterodyne beat'being the same in both cases. Furthermore,'different static characteristics will be obtainedby having the heterodyne beat in one system of a different frequency from that inthe other system.- For example, theheterodyne beat in one receiving system may be 1000 while the. beat in the other is" 1500.:

Difi'erentiation between the effects of static at the plurality of stations maylikewise be obtained by using different types of continu ous'wave detectors, that is, the heterodyne or beat system may beuse'd with one antenna and'the synchronous detectorat one or more of the others. This latter detector] is de- :scribed in the application of-E. F. WV Alexanderson, No. 323,745 filed September 15, 1919. One or more'of the detectors-also may be of the radio chopper type such as disclosed in Goldsmith-Patent 'No. 1,087,113, February 17 1914. i

While the particular form of recorded message at each of the stations may be the same, I prefer to convertthe signals at one of the stations into linear dots and dashes andone or more of the others into dots andv dashes ,made up of vibratory tracings such as is shown in Fig. 2. The'invention, howeve i not limited to this particular feat-ure, y I p The time of travel of the signal from the several stations, even though widely separated, will be so short that in general no compensatin means will be required, but if necessary, the signals may be compensated in this respect by a mechanical shifting of the position of the mirrors. When these are once set for receiving'signals from 'a particular station further adjustment will not be required.

- It is preferable to send all of the messages to a common, station for recording simultaneously but it is entirely practicable to independently record the messages atithe stations and then send the dots to a common point to-be assembled in adjacent position.

Also, the antenna. may consist of three diiferent types located at the same or different places. In Fig. 3 such a system is indicated. The antenna 20 is shown as of the vertical type, the antenna 21 as a closed loop and the antenna 22 as a long antenna such as is described in patent to Beverage, No. 1,381,089, June 7, 1921.

l/Vhile I have shown certain types ofarrangements for receiving signals and transmitting them to a common point, as well as a. particular type of recording apparatus,

nevertheless, it will be understood that these have been given by way of example only and that other arrangements may be used for receiving and recording the messages. It will also be understood that damped signals may be received by mydmproved method in which case no heterodyne will be required.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

l. The method of receiving telegraphic messages which consists in receiving the transmitted signals forming such messages at a plurality of stations, comparing the signals received, and eliminating effects re ceived at less than all of said stations.

2..The method ofneceiving, telegraphic messages which consists in receiving the. same message at a .plurality of stations comparing the indications received at each station and selecting the proper signals from the indications received at all stations.

3. The method of receiving radio inessages which consists in receiving anddetecting the signals comprising the said messages at a plurality of stations and comparing the signals received and detected, to determine the transmitted signal.

4. The method of receiving telegraphic messages which-consists in -receiving the signals comprising such messages at a plurality of stations, recording the said signals and comparing the signals thus. recorded to select the transmitted signals.

5. The method of receiving radio messages which consists in receiving the transmitted signals comprising such messages in a plurality of circuits, comparing such signals and selecting the proper signal from .the signals received.

- which consists in substantially simultaneously receiving the signals forming such messages at a plurality of receiving stations differing in one or more receptional characteristics and comparing the signals thus received to determine the signals transmitted.

8. The method of reception of telegraphic communication which consists in receiving the signals in a plurality of circuits difiering from each other in one or more characteristics and recording said signals in adjacent position for simultaneous reading and comparison.

graphic communication which consists in receiving the signals in a plurality of circuits differingfrom each other in one or more characteristics, transmitting said signals to a-common point and recording them in adjacent position. v .10. The method of reception of telegraphic communication which consists in receiving the signals in a plurality of circuits with one or more diii'erent electrical characteristics in respect to the signal, transmitting the signals to a common point and rec ordin them in adjacent position.

11. he method of reception of telegraphic communication which consists in receiving the signals in a plurality of widely separated antenna systems, transmitting said signals to a common point and recording them in adjacent position. 7

12.111 telegraphic receiving apparatus a plurality of receiving systems having one or more differentcharacteristics, means for RICH ARD HOWE-AND RANGER.

9. The method of reception of tele- 

